Things were just beginning seriously to take off for Schaeffer in 1989. She'd gotten a place of her own -- she lived with Dawber and her husband Mark Harmon for the first years of the show they worked on. She'd appeared in a movie, The End of Innocence, and was about to audition for The Godfather, Part III.

On the morning of July 18, 1989, Bardo, then 19, came to the door of her apartment building and buzzed her. He was angry because she wasn't returning his letters and because he'd failed to get close to Schaeffer at work to give her a teddy bear, and had a new letter to hand her. Schaeffer, running late for the Godfatheraudition, answered the door because the intercom wasn't working; she told him to go away.

He rang again. This time, when she answered, Bardo shot her twice. She died on the doorstep.